Interviews
Pop and Balls
When I was growing up, my father always would say, "You're a girl. You're supposed to get married." You know, and tell my brother, "You got to go to college. You got to do this and that." And I just said, "Me! What about me?" and he would always say, "No, you're a girl. You're a girl." And he does that every time. You know, he's teaching kendo and I said, "I want to do it too" and he says, "No, you're a girl." Everything was... Anyway, one day I came home from school and I had won some class office or whatever and he, he turned to my mother and he said in Japanese, "It's a shame this child does not have kintamas." Do you know what that means? Balls. What he meant is, it's a shame that all these attributes are on a girl child. I heard, that one day when I was charging, I heard that Senator Kennedy turned to a fellow commissioner and said, "Where'd they find that woman? Boy, does she have balls." And so, when I give speeches, I like to say, "Well, my father would be so happy, finally." Yeah.
Date: July 17, 2013
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Sean Hamamoto
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum; Japanese American Bar Association
Explore More Videos
His sister Kiyo was like a second mother to him
(b. 1942) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City
How he met his wife
Professor of Law, University of Sao Paulo, Lawyer, Translator (b. 1948)
Impact of Coming Out on Her Family
(b. 1957) Jusice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii.
Parent’s Marriage
(b. 1939) a businesswoman whose family volunterily moved to Salt Lake City in Utah during the war.